


No Living With A Killing

by beefcakebuck



Category: Wolverine - Fandom, X-Men, laura kinney - Fandom, logan howlett - Fandom
Genre: Blood, Eden - Freeform, Fire, Mutants, Violence, X-men - Freeform, fellow mutants, laura kinney is a bad bitch, logan's dog tags, major logan spoilers, the house of eden
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-27
Updated: 2017-04-27
Packaged: 2018-10-24 15:54:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,612
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10744908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beefcakebuck/pseuds/beefcakebuck
Summary: Three years after Laura and her fellow mutant friends find The House of Eden, she helps fight off secret organizations with her father's dog tag hanging from  her neck.





	No Living With A Killing

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO FRIENDS! Before you begin reading, I would like to remind you again that there are major Logan spoilers at the beginning of this story and you will easily pick up on what happened prior to the three year time jump even if you skip over it, so if you have not seen Logan and would prefer it if I did not spoil any of it, please save this to your reading list for another day!
> 
> For those of you who have been able to suffer through Logan aka the best movie of the year, I have changed a few things from the movie to properly fit the story line but it's nothing major at all. I hope you enjoy and cry reading this as I did writing it!

  
_A man has to be what he is, Joey. Can't break the moulds. There is no living with a killing. There is no going back. Right or wrong, it is a brand. Now you run home to your mother. Tell her everything is alright. There are no more guns in the valley._

* * *

Rictor urged the group of young mutants to step up their pace. They've already lost so much time and their window is slowly closing, but the children couldn't just leave without giving the old man a proper burial after he'd been hurt trying to protect them.

He glances back at Laura who walked with her head low and fell a bit behind. He sighed and looked forward, ignoring the voice telling him to stop and comfort her. They need to cross the border as soon as possible so instead, he continued progressing forward and he knew Laura wouldn't want them to stop for her again. There will be plenty of time for comfort once they've reached Eden. Plenty of time to mourn when they've reached safety.

"We have to keep moving." He said. "We have to keep moving, guys."

Once they reached the border, Laura seems to be back to her usual self, but the children knew she was just trying to be strong, to pretend that what just happened didn't.

But she can't stop seeing the furiously red blood and hearing the deep groans of pain. It won't stop replaying in her head, every single detail. She sees the blood splatter onto his dirty white t-shirt when he is impaled by the branch of the damned tree. She hears the gunfire, loud and sudden, but angry and determined. She sees X-24 collapse onto the ground after the side of his head is shot off, that bastard. She hears her father grunting softly and choking on his breaths. She sees the color drain from his face, turning him sickeningly pale and his eyelids become heavy over his tired eyes. She hears his heartbeat slowing dangerously, with the help of her enhanced hearing. She sees his bloody hand shakily grab onto her own, as if looking for an anchor to hold himself down for a few more seconds so he can say his last words before he lets himself take his last breath. She sees that too.

She can still hear the way he said his last words, how soft and breathless they sounded coming from his dry lips.

"Don't be what they made you."

She knew what he meant when he said this. She knew he wanted her to be a better person than her father. She knew he wanted her to know that she is more than what the scientist told her she was, that she is more than how she was once treated.

"Laura..." He whispers softly. "Laura..."

"Daddy." She whispers back, squeezing the hand that's holding her own. This is the first time she ever addressed him as such and she is aware that it may very well be her last.

"So this is what it feels like."

He says this breathless and bittersweet, trying to chuckle to lighten the mood, to slow the tears streaming down his daughter's face, but his body wouldn't allow it.

"No... No." Laura shook her head slowly. "Daddy... Daddy."

Her face was red and flushed, tears falling one after the other.

"Take my tags, kid..." He whispered. "In my pocket. Take 'em. They're yours now."

Neither of them make an effort to pull the dog tags out of the pocket they're nestled in. Her father doesn't do so because the last bit of energy he had was used to make sure Laura knew she wasn't a monster and squeeze her hand. Laura doesn't do so because she can't take her eyes off him for a second to reach into his pocket, she just can't.

Laura choked on her own tears, staring at the other man's face. This can't be happening. This can't be happening. The stubborn two just got the hang of each other, just started enjoying having each other around. And now he's here, accepting the feeling his life slowly draining from his body right before her eyes and she knows he's almost in awe at the many years he's gone without feeling this very thing. Death.

And then he was gone.

The grip on her small hand loosened, the short breaths that were all too forced ceased, the eyelids that were drooping heavily finally dropped closed for the last time.

Laura doesn't think about blinking back her tears to clear her vision so she can dig into her father's pocket to retrieve the dog tags he stuffed in there in a haste to get to her. She doesn't think about how she stared at the two slivers of metal before deciding to take one tag and slip the other with the word _LOGAN_ stamped into it around his neck where it belonged. She doesn't think about having to finally let go of the man's hand so she could hurriedly dig a hole in the ground, because if her father is right, they'll keep coming. And she most definitely does not think about tilting the cross into an X before leaving him behind.

The tears that slipped down her cheeks as she listened to her father mumble his final words were dried against her blotchy face. She kept her head down, staring at the mulch and twigs and dried up leaves under the shoes he bought her.

She shook off the thoughts as best she could and lifted her chin. She needed to be strong for her friends. They were in this together and if one head was cloudy, their chances of surviving were slimmer.

At the border, they each took turns crawling through a small opening Gabriela had told them about, Rictor watching their surroundings cautiously. Then they were on their way to Eden. They were on their way to safety.

 

  
_Three years later..._

 

  
Laura stares at herself through the bathroom mirror she shares with a couple of other girls in the house. There are plenty of bathrooms around the House of Eden and each one is used by no more than six or seven people, usually those who share a bedroom.

She looks down at the large three-sink counter. Each one belonged to a different girl she roomed with. The first three were occupied by her own, Delilah's and Charlotte's things. The three on the other side were scattered with Rebecca's, Lillian's and Jesse's things. Across each sink were hairbrushes, tubes of toothpaste, lotions and perfumes of various sorts. On some of their mirrors there were pictures of their parents or friends, some had stickers and cutouts from magazines. On Laura's though, she had four battered photos lined up neatly along the edge of the mirror, one right above the other.

At the bottom left-hand corner was a photo of her mutant friends she grew up with in captivity and Gabriela, the sweet nurse that acted as her mother to keep her safe for as long as she could. Half of the young mutants in the picture were left back at the facility and Nurse Gabriela was left in an unlocked room at Liberty Motel. The photo was a light brown color, old with multiple fold creases as a result of each attempt to fit it inside a pocket or a crack in the wall. Laura remembers Gabriela giving it to her one night in a shabby motel room that was barely lit by cheap light bulbs. She was killed a week later.

Above that photo was a small, wallet-sized picture of Caliban. His hand pulled down the cloth covering his mouth, revealing a small, half smile. She curiously snooped through a few drawers when she was left alone in their home and tucked a handful of photos between the comic book she was hiding in her small book bag. Caliban and Laura didn't speak much or even at all, now that she thinks about it, but she will never forget the sacrifices he made to keep her and her father safe and how much time and effort he put into taking care of Charles.

Speaking of Charles, right above Caliban was him. A three by three photo of Charles Xavier shooting the camera a knowing smile and whoever took this photo knew damn well that he knew a lot. Charles was the first person she trusted after she escaped the hospital. He communicated with her a few times before Gabriela found Logan and immediately knew he was a good man. The moment she saw him laying motionless in that truck bed, she knew he was gone. So she lost it and started screaming and thrashing against the restraints holding her hands and feet together. The one person who was making sure she was on her way to safety was dead. But then she started trusting Logan, who sliced the metal that kept her from moving and set her free.

Logan's photo, a four by four, was directly above the one of Charles. He wasn't looking at the camera, but he was definitely looking at something he cared about, because the softness in his eyes and the genuity in his smile was something Laura had only gotten glimpses of. The photo of her dad was bent and folded a bit at each corner, but less than the others, for she had taken better care of that specific picture. It may just be her favorite.

Thinking back to all the moments they exchanged, the fights they fought together, the land they crossed sitting side by side, she can't deny that she misses him. She can't deny that she thinks about where they'd be right now if she was smarter and older when he was dying in her arms. Maybe she could have saved him and maybe they could have crossed the border together and made it to Eden where they could nurse him back to health. Maybe she would've learned more things from him and bonded with him the way daughters do with their fathers.

Laura sighs softly, stuffing her hands into her pockets. In her right hand, she feels the smooth metal and engraved letters and numbers. She lets her thumb run over it a few times, before pulling it out to examine it. She does this often and she's not quite sure why. It's not like it's something she's never seen before, she looks at this same piece of metal every single day. Maybe she does this because it's the only remaining thing left of her father that she has, besides the few aging photos she has under her mattress in her notebook.

She slipped the chain around her neck, pulling her dark, shower-dampened hair from under it to fall over her shoulders again. The tag fell just above her breasts as it did her father's. She looked down at it one more time.

_Wolverine._

She smiled a bit and tucked it under her shirt before exiting the bathroom and making her way to one of the family rooms where Rictor and a few others were working out the kinks to their plan.

A small organization had been researching about the House of Eden and had sent a few men to scope out the area to see if they could find anything. They'd come within three hours of the house while a few of the eldest mutants were out checking the movement monitors that alerted the lot of them if something passed, moving fifteen miles an hour or more, as they do once a week. They were lucky to have caught them while they were still searching hours from their jackpot, because it was easy to catch them off guard and kill them. The organization only found a general area of where the mansion might be so until one of the other mutants in the house can figure out a way to fry all of their work and information, they have to make sure no potential threats come close to their home.

A fellow mutant in the house found their base and hacked a few files and discovered that they plan to send six more men their way so Rictor and a few of the older mutants were mapping out a plan to keep everyone safe.

"Hey Laura." Rictor said when she entered the room and sat on the couch beside them. "We think you should join us. The plan involves your claws." He tapped her knuckles and she smiled.

"Yeah, no one stands a chance when they're up against the Wolverine!" Jason said, earning a few cheers and words of agreement from the other mutants around the room. He's one of the older boys in the house, he's usually the one who comes up with plans of attack if need-be.

So Laura sits in the circle of mutants and is caught up on the plan they've already come up with.

 

An hour later, they're in Jason's car, driving toward the first interaction with this organization - near the movement monitors. The sun is setting as they speed through the one-car path hidden between the forest. It's not often that Laura gets to go for a ride through the woods so she holds her head up by her chin and stares at the trees passing at seventy miles an hour.

"Pick it up, grandma." She hears Jenny say to Jason. The lot of them laugh as the MPH needle points to 100.

Jason, who was driving, has enhanced speed and strength. People usually call him Speedy or Jase. In the passenger seat was Rictor, who has the ability to control forms of metal and, on some occasions, rubber. He's often called Ricky or Magnets. Rictor smiles proudly the few times he's called Mini Magneto. Beside her was Jenny, who could manipulate fire and if she concentrates hard enough, she could pull a flame out of thin air. They call her Jen and sometimes Flame. Sitting at the other window was Morgan, who has the ability to alter probability and is a little clairvoyant. The mutants sometimes call her Mo. Kids around the house have taken to calling Laura Wolvie and Wolfie. One of the girls who speaks Latin at the mansion says "gulo" means "Wolverine," so she addresses Laura as such.

Six men were on their way to find the mansion. Five mutants were on their way to protect it. No one in the car was nervous or scared. They've prepared for things like this. They're ready.

 

A few hours later, Jason parks his car out of sight while the sun sets, saying something about the first time he got bullet holes in this car.

A couple yards away from each other, they each ducked behind boulders or trees on either side of the dirt road and watched for approachment. Skylar, the hacker back at the house, sent them a text twenty minutes prior, saying the men should be driving toward them around 7:30-8:00 and it was currently 7:42.

Laura listened with her enhanced hearing and Morgan closed her eyes to try and get a glimpse of anything coming toward them. Just when Laura started to hear something, Morgan spoke up.

"Two miles. Thirty MPH." She said loud enough for each of them to hear.

"My God, they're slow. I know they're looking for us, but damn." Jason joked, peeking his head over the rock he was hiding behind.

"Ready, Rictor?" Jason asked. He nodded, a sly smile curling his lips.

Two black Hummers drove closer and closer. None of them moved, not even when the cars drove passed them. Rictor stared at the cars as they drove on, stopping them in their tracks. The Hummers lifted ten feet off the ground, then crashed back down with a loud noise. Immediately, three men piled out of each car, holding guns to up toward the trees, but the mutants were still hiding.

Jason snickered softly, before he ran from one side of the rode to the other, using his incredible speed. The men shot at the rustling leaves for a moment then stopped. He ran by again, in another direction, earning more gunshots. Rictor stares at one man's gun and pulls it from his grip, throwing it to the ground. The man runs for it and holds it up again. Rictor does this to two other men. The mutants can already see the fear in their eyes.

Jenny peaks from behind a thick tree and nods toward Morgan who moves her hand like she's beckoning someone to come to her, but instead, the fuel from each Hummer splatters onto the ground in different places around the scared men, who just point their guns at every movement.

"What the hell?" One of the men says, fear coating his voice.

Jenny smiles and waves her hand toward the fuel, causing flames to spring up. All of the men jump, two of them lose their balance and topple over.

"Get up, you idiots!" One man shouts to those with their bums on the ground. They scurry to their feet.

Rictor looked over at Laura, who watched the flames grow from behind a tree and gives her an encouraging smile and nod. She smiles as she extends her claws slowly so the sound doesn't draw attention to her area. Carefully, she uses the metal sticking out of her knuckle to pull the chain from under her shirt, to rest upon it.

Rictor looks up at the men, all facing the opposite direction of Laura.

"Now." Rictor whispered and Laura was on her feet.

Laura ran toward them and let out a scream as she shoved her claws into a man's chest, killing him immediately. The other men turn toward her and begin to shoot but she's already using the dead man's body to back flip off of and land on another man, stabbing both sets of claws into his chest. One man comes closer to her, aiming to shoot her in the head but she turns quickly, swinging the chain around her neck a bit and slices the tip of his gun, kicks him with a grunt and stabs him upward through his chin.

She yelps when a sudden pain hits her in her left shoulder and the shooting stops. The men stare at her back as she grits her teeth and lets the two bullets revert and drop from the hole in her skin, sealing itself up quickly. She turns slowly, eyes full of fire.

"Dad never liked guns. And neither do I."

Rictor pulls the guns from their hands and toward himself, hiding them behind the boulder. The three remaining men's eyes widen, but their fists raise, ready for combat. But so is Laura.

She charges toward them, letting out another scream. She slices a man's neck and kicks him to the ground to bleed out in few small flames that Jenny immediately has envelop him. One of the men swings at her but her reflexes are too fast, because she's already ducking and extending the single claw through her shoe. She throws her foot up, jamming the claw into the man's stomach, then back-hands him with her claws so he falls forward onto the ground. The final man charges toward her but she simply swings her body around, her chain swaying and clinking as she did, and kicks her foot claw into his throat and quickly pulls it free, stepping out of the line of squirting blood to let him fall to his knees, then his stomach.

Laura seals her claws back up, breathing heavily. She could smell the large amounts of iron in each man's blood that was splattered everywhere on their dead bodies and there's even some on Laura's face that she wipes off with the back of her hand.

"Who was it that said no one stands a chance against the Wolverine? Oh right, that was me!" Jason jokes, giving Laura a hard pat on the back and high five.

"Mo, you're up!" Jason said and Morgan nodded. She waved her hands toward the bleeding men and piled them one by one into the Hummers.

"Your turn, Jen." Morgan said.

The mutants jogged away from the vehicles until there was a safe distance between them. Jenny motioned her hands toward the dying flames and threw them into the cars, setting them on fire. She waved a bit more and the flames grew bigger and seconds later, the cars exploded, throwing pieces of them outward. Rictor caught them and placed them back inside the car.

Laura can hear the car groaning and creaking from where she stands, the smell of fuel and burning flesh dancing under her nose. She tilts her head down toward her tag and holds it in her hand to give it a look. Not because she's worried something may have happened to it but because she uses it as a reminder of who she is and who her father was. She smiles at it, wondering if he'd be proud of her right now.

"I can't believe you still have that, after all this time." Rictor said from a few feet away as the others watched the cars burn. He lifted it, tilted it toward himself for a moment, then let it drop. Laura smiled and tucked it back under her shirt.

"Of course I still have it."

Rictor smiles wide at Laura, before jogging up toward the two cars with the others to discuss the disposal. Laura smiles softly at her friends and quietly mumbles to herself.

"I am the Wolverine."

**Author's Note:**

> HELLO AGAIN! You have reached the end and for that, I am proud. Please let me know in the comment section what you liked, what you didn't like anything you think I'd need to see. Thank you!
> 
> P.S. and if you wanna hang out with me, my twitter is beefcakebuck and my tumblr is beefcakebucks.


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